London Review Bookshop Podcast

‘Wonders Will Never Cease’: Robert Irwin and Nicholas Lezard

06 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Renowned arabist and regular LRB contributor Robert Irwin was in the shop to read from and talk about his latest novel 'Wonders Will Never Cease' (Ded...

The Levellers' Revolution: John Rees and Diane Purkiss

15 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The revolutionary Leveller movement grew out of the explosive tumult of the 1640s and the battlefields of the English Civil Wars. They were central fi...

The Age of Jihad: Patrick Cockburn and Rachel Shabi

03 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to Cockburn discuss his latest book 'The Age of Jihad' (Verso) with 'Guardian' journalist Rachel Shabi, author of 'Not the Enemy: Israel's Jew...

John Berger at 90: the Verso podcast in collaboration with London Review Bookshop

01 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Poet, essayist, novelist, broadcaster, artist and film-maker John Berger celebrates his 90th birthday this month. To mark the occasion we have declare...

Rebel Crossings: Sheila Rowbotham and Melissa Benn

19 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Sheila Rowbotham was one of the leading figures behind the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain and is one of the best-loved feminists of our time...

No Art and the Hatred of Poetry: Ben Lerner and Andrea Brady

18 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ben Lerner and Andrea Brady in conversation at the London Review Bookshop. Lerner is a novelist, poet and critic, whose most recent collection is No A...

Mark Greif and Brian Dillon

13 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

From the tyranny of exercise to the crisis of policing, via the sexualization of childhood (and everything else), Mark Greif’s Against Everything is...

The State of Turkey: Ece Temelkuran, Kaya Genç and Daniel Trilling

27 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of the failed military coup, two of Turkey’s most prominent young writers discuss Turkey, its past, present and future. Ece Temelku...

'Prac Crit' Poetry Launch: with Howe, Capildeo, Waldron, Villanueva and McLane

13 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this podcast of poetry 'up close' with 'Prac Crit' founding editor and winner of the T.S Eliot Prize, Sarah Howe. Four recently featured poe...

Sarah Moss and Max Porter

30 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to Sarah Moss reading from and talking about her fifth novel 'The Tidal Zone' (Granta) an exploration of parental love, illness and recovery. S...

Riot. Strike. Riot: Joshua Clover and Nina Power on the New Era of Uprisings

23 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Baltimore. Ferguson. Tottenham. Clichy-sous-Bois. Oakland. Ours has become an 'age of riots' as the struggle of people versus state and capital has ta...

Walter Benjamin: The Storyteller

15 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Curator Gareth Evans and scholar Esther Leslie discussed the fiction of the legendary critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin, published in *[The Story...

Flaneuse; Women Walk the City: Lauren Elkin and Brian Dillon

08 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The flaneur – an almost invariably male idler dawdling through city streets with no apparent purpose in mind – is familiar to us from the works of...

George Monbiot and John Lanchester: How Did We Get into This Mess?

07 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast George Monbiot and John Lanchester discuss Monbiot’s latest book 'How Did We Get into this Mess?' (Verso) and assess the state we ...

Geoff Dyer: White Sands

29 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In his latest book White Sands (Canongate) inveterate traveller, novelist and essayist Geoff Dyer investigates, through ten journeys to places as dist...

Darian Leader and Tom McCarthy on 'Hands'

09 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Psychoanalyst Darian Leader was at the shop to present his latest book 'Hands: What We Do with Them and Why' (Hamish Hamilton), in conversation with t...

Walter Benjamin, The Storyteller: The Verso podcast in collaboration with the London Review Bookshop

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest Verso podcast in collaboration with the London Review Bookshop, Esther Leslie, Marina Warner and Michael Rosen join Gareth Evans to disc...

The Argonauts: Maggie Nelson and Olivia Laing

25 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast, listen to Maggie Nelson in conversation with author Olivia Laing in the bookshop. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inf...

Hamlet Fold On Fold: Gabriel Josipovici with Charles Nicholl

19 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Gabriel Josipovici came to the bookshop to discuss his new book, Hamlet Fold on Fold, a scene-by-scene examination of Hamlet resisting grand interpret...

Benedict Anderson's Legacy: 'A Life Beyond Boundaries': with Tariq Ali, Laleh Khalili & T.J. Clark

17 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast listen to a discussion chaired by Tariq Ali, celebrating the life and work of historian and sociologist Benedict Anderson, who died in...

'Respectable': Lynsey Hanley and Dawn Foster

05 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to be middle class or working class? How does class affect us? Lynsey Hanley and Dawn Foster came to the bookshop to discuss Hanley'...

Seymour Hersh with Adam Shatz: The Killing of Osama Bin Laden

21 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Seymour Hersh has been a towering presence in American journalism for nearly 50 years. In 1970 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his articles exposing the...

Mary Beard in discussion with James Davidson

01 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Britain's best-known classicist Mary Beard in discussion about her latest book, *[SPQR][1]* (Profile), in our special off-site event at Senate House. ...

'God is No Thing': Rupert Shortt and Rowan Williams

29 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Rupert Shortt in discussion with Dr Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, on Shortt's new book *God is No Thing*. Even though parts of the W...

'Raptor: A Journey Through Birds': James Macdonald Lockhart and Tim Dee

03 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

James Macdonald Lockhart's first book *[Raptor][1]*, (HarperCollins) documents a series of journeys in search of each of Britain's breeding birds of p...

'Beethoven for a Later Age': Edward Dusinberre and James Jolly

02 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When asked about the meaning of the late string quartets Beethoven famously remarked 'Oh those are not for you, they are for a later age.' Has that la...

'Lean Out': Dawn Foster

21 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In Lean Out (Repeater Books) writer, journalist and LRB contributor Dawn Foster takes issue with the corporate-style feminism outlined in Sheryl Sandb...

Nicotine: Gregor Hens in conversation with Will Self

12 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Gregor Hens discussed his new book Nicotine with Will Self. Written with the passion of an obsessive, Nicotine addresses a life of addiction, from the...

The Art of Short Fiction: Helen Simpson and Marina Warner

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Marina Warner wears many hats, as cultural critic, mythographer, historian and essayist, but one of her best-fitting hats is her writer of short ficti...

Edna O’Brien talks to Andrew O’Hagan about her new novel ‘The Little Red Chairs’

30 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

A new novel from Edna O'Brien is without question a major literary event, and *The Little Red Chairs* (Faber) is her first for a decade. A hunted war ...

1606: James Shapiro and Charles Nicholl

19 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ten years after the publication of his highly acclaimed and prize-winning 1599 James Shapiro moves the Shakespeare story on to 1606, the year of *King...

Joanna Walsh and Claire-Louise Bennett: Hotel x Pond

17 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Claire-Louise Bennett and Joanna Walsh met at the London Review Bookshop to read from and discuss their new books, Pond (Fitzcarraldo Editions) and Ho...

Ferrante Fever: Ann Goldstein, Joanna Biggs, Lisa Appignanesi and Alex Clark

02 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Elena Ferrante's translator, Ann Goldstein, was joined by Joanna Biggs, Lisa Appignanesi and Alex Clark to discuss the appeal and mystery of the enigm...

Is There Such A Thing As Italian Cuisine?

01 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Dino Joannides, consummate food fanatic, bon viveur and author chaired a panel of writers and chefs to discuss the question: 'Is there such a thing as...

Trans: Juliet Jacques with Chloe Aridjis

29 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In July 2012, aged thirty, Juliet Jacques underwent sex reassignment surgery—a process she chronicled with unflinching honesty in a Guardian column....

Brian Dillon and Esther Leslie on Walter Benjamin

24 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Seventy-five years ago, on 26 September 1940, perhaps the 20th century's greatest cultural critic died in a small town on the Spanish border as he att...

Danny Dorling and Dawn Foster on inequality

22 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford University and, according to Simon Jenkins 'geographer royal by appointment to the left' was at the...

Alexandra Harris and Frances Spalding: 'Weatherland: Writers and Artists Under English Skies'

16 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Alexandra Harris, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Liverpool University, was at the shop to talk about her latest book Weatherland (Thames and...

Chatto Poets: Liz Berry, Sarah Howe and Helen Mort

18 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Three of the best new poets in years were reading in the Bookshop. Helen Mort’s *[Division Street][1]* (Chatto) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot P...

Granada: The Light of Andalucía, with Steven Nightingale and Robert Irwin

16 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Nightingale's Granada: The Light of Andalucía (Nicholas Brealey) is a rhapsodic celebration of one of Spain's most beautiful and fascinating c...

Etgar Keret in Conversation with Naomi Alderman

13 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Israeli author Etgar Keret has been described by Clive James as 'one of the most important writers alive', by Salman Rushdie as 'A brilliant writer .....

Iain Sinclair and Brian Catling: Black Apple of the Vorrh

09 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Two very different books, Iain Sinclair’s Black Apples of Gower and Brian Catling’s The Vorrh share a measure of common ground: the Cave of Origin...

Carcanet New Poetries VI

07 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past two decades Carcanet’s New Poetries anthologies have been discovering the best new poets in English, and have provided readers with th...

The Story of Alice: Robert Douglas-Fairhurst & Vanessa Tait

30 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Alice in Wonderland is 150 years old this year. To celebrate her anniversary we have invited Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Professor of English Literature...

On Elizabeth Bishop: Colm Tóibín and Ruth Padel

19 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

In On Elizabeth Bishop novelist and essayist Colm Tóibín provides a deeply personal meditation on one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, and...

Curationism: David Balzer and Zoe Pilger

30 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

'The more conscious a work of art is of its audience, the more curated it becomes.'‘Curation’ has become a buzzword, applied to everything from mu...

Curiosity: Alberto Manguel and John Sutherland

29 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Alberto Manguel is a Canadian writer, translator, editor and critic, but most of all, he is a reader. In his latest book Curiosity (Yale) Manguel guid...

After the Election: A Debate

27 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

The May General Election looks likely to be the closest in a generation. But what happens after it? The gap between the two main parties is narrower t...

Voices for the Voiceless: Elena Poniatowska and Michael Schmidt

17 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Elena Poniatowska’s work, in both fiction and journalism, has always been devoted to giving a voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised and the op...

Pedigree Mongrel: An Evening with Jonathan Meades

09 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and film-maker Jonathan Meades joined us at the Bookshop to present and discuss *Pedigree Mongrel* (Test Centre), a new album composed of speci...

Making It Up: Kirsty Gunn and Deborah Levy

24 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Short stories don't have to be like short stories. They can be experiences, visitations, slices of events or part revelations of a truth or a lie. Kir...

Katharine Norbury and Blake Morrison in Conversation

18 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Katharine Norbury's affecting memoir The Fish Ladder (Bloomsbury) deals with grief, recovery and the redemptive power of stories and journeys. Abandon...

Patrick Cockburn on the Rise of Islamic State

05 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Patrick Cockburn, regular contributor to the LRB and Middle East correspondent for the Independent, is, according to Seymour Hersh, 'Quite simply, the...

Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange: Robert Irwin in conversation with Marina Warner

21 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Islamic scholar Robert Irwin joined us at the Bookshop in discussion with mythographer Marina Warner about a groundbreaking new translation of Tales o...

The White Review Presents an Evening with Chris Kraus

12 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Kraus is the author of four novels, most recently Summer of Hate, and two books of art and cultural criticism. The New York Observer describes h...

An Evening with James Ellroy

24 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

James Ellroy’s hardboiled, idiosyncratic explorations of Los Angeles police corruption and midcentury Washington power politics have earned him a wo...

Rising Ground: Place Writing Now

18 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Writing about place – a sub-genre of travel writing that subverts it by being about staying put, rather than moving – has been enjoying an extraor...

Some Luck: Jane Smiley

04 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

When I was in eighth grade my history teacher wrote on my report card: “She only does what she wants to do.” She thought that was a bad thing, and...

‘Inequality and the 1%’: Danny Dorling in conversation with Kate Pickett

21 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Our top 1% take 15% of all income. That’s the highest share of anywhere in Europe. Our bottom fifth are the poorest in Europe. In Inequality and the...

The Establishment: Owen Jones

16 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In 'The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It' (Allen Lane) Owen Jones analyses the people and institutions that govern our lives – governmen...

33 Artists in 3 Acts: Sarah Thornton and Isaac Julien

13 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Leading sociologist of art [Sarah Thornton][1] goes behind the scenes with 33 living artists including Ai Weiwei, Maurizio Cattelan, Cindy Sherman and...

Labyrinth: Will Self and Mark Wallinger

30 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In what may well be the largest work of public art in history, Turner prize-winner Mark Wallinger placed a uniquely designed labyrinth in each of Lond...

Everything Flows: A Celebration of Vasily Grossman

17 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Vasily Grossman, now widely regarded as the greatest Russian novelist of the 20th century, died 50 years ago this month. The author of the remarkable ...

Private Island: James Meek

16 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

James Meek came to the bookshop to talk about his new book, Private Island (Verso), a scathing assessment of the last two decades’ privatisation of ...

Shark: An Evening with Will Self

11 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Will Self’s latest novel Shark explores the hidden history of the late 20th century, taking in the American invasion of Cambodia, the sinking of the...

An Evening with Karl Ove Knausgaard

05 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Karl Ove Knausgaard’s six autobiographical novels, published in Norway between 2009 and 2011 under the series title *Min Kamp* (‘My Struggle’) h...

How to be Both: Ali Smith in conversation with Alex Clark

02 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Ali Smith has been described by Kate Atkinson as ‘one of the few contemporary writers ploughing a genuinely modernist furrow.’ Her latest novel *h...

Wittgenstein Jr: Lars Iyer and Ray Monk

28 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

'Who has the temerity to call themselves a philosopher? The word “philosopher" is an honorific. It should be bestowed upon you by others.' Lars Iyer...

Can't and Won't: An Evening with Lydia Davis

27 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

‘It's a bit mysterious, but somehow the emotion I feel at the heart of whatever I'm writing comes through, usually by my not insisting on it.’ Lyd...

H is for Hawk: Helen Macdonald and Tim Dee

08 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Macdonald and Tim Dee came to the Bookshop to talk about birds, and about writing about birds. Radio producer Tim Dee propelled himself into the...

The Darkest Days: Douglas Newton and Christopher Clark

04 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

As the world commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War historian Douglas Newton recounts the hidden history of Britain’s decision ...

The Ranters: Nigel Smith in conversation with Stephen Sedley

23 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Nigel Smith, currently Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature at Princeton, was in conversation about the thought, literature and legacy of the Ra...

Correspondences: Anne Michaels and Gareth Evans

16 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Best known in Britain for her award-winning novel Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels is also an acclaimed poet. Her latest collection, Correspondences, sh...

Another Great Day at Sea: Geoff Dyer

09 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Geoff Dyer’s latest book Another Great Day at Sea (Visual Editions), illustrated with the photographs of Chris Steele-Perkins, recounts daily life a...

The Empathy Exams: Leslie Jamison and Olivia Laing

08 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Leslie Jamison’s essays deal with illness, art, running, loss, the female body and everything else besides. She joined us at the shop to discuss her...

‘Mapping It Out’: Hans Ulrich Obrist and Tom McCarthy

23 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

'The first thing you find out in any textbook about maps is that they don't work. There's no such thing as a good map.'What is a map? And what is a ma...

Chris Marker: Writing the Image - with Chris Darke and Brian Dillon

18 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Film-maker, graphic designer, animator, cartoonist, photographer, internet and new media pioneer, installationist, novelist, critic, publisher – the...

The Perfect Theory: Pedro G Ferreira and Marcus du Sautoy

10 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Almost a century after Einstein first proposed it, the full ramifications of the General Theory of Relativity are still being debated. Pedro Ferreira ...

The Blazing World: Siri Hustvedt with Sarah Thornton

29 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In Siri Hustvedt’s latest novel The Blazing World (Sceptre) artist Harriet Burden, consumed by fury at the lack of recognition she has received from...

Aimé Césaire’s Return to my Native Land: John Berger in conversation with David Constantine

27 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

John Berger came to the Bookshop to celebrate the life and work of Aimé Césaire on the occasion of Archipelago's reissue of Césaire's long poem Cah...

Outlaws: Javier Cercas and Paul Preston

23 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Javier Cercas rose to fame in the English-speaking world with The Soldiers of Salamis which won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2004 and was ...

The Novel; A Biography: Michael Schmidt and Michael Wood

20 May 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Quoting from the letters, diaries, reviews, and essays of novelists and drawing on their biographies, Schmidt’s The Novel – A Biography (Harvard) ...

Sally Potter: Naked Cinema

28 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

'The tutored and passionate eye of the director holds the space, which otherwise would be without boundary, indiscriminate and endless.' Since making ...

Telex From Cuba: An evening with Rachel Kushner

15 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Following the hugely enjoyable launch event last year for [*The Flamethrowers*][1], Rachel Kushner returned to the shop to mark the UK publication (by...

Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism: David Harvey and Owen Jones

10 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, 'Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism' (Profile), David Harvey unravels the paradoxes at the heart of capitalism – it...

The Bloomsbury Cookbook

08 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

To celebrate the publication of The Bloomsbury Cookbook (Thames & Hudson), we held an exclusive evening at the Bookshop, a stone’s throw away from t...

Walking the Woods and the Water: Nick Hunt and Artemis Cooper

03 Apr 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010 Nick Hunt set out on an epic walk in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh Fermor, across the whole European continent ‘from the Hook of Holland to...

CB Editions: Will Eaves and May-Lan Tan

21 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

May-Lan Tan and Will Eaves joined us at the Bookshop for the launch of their respective books, Things to Make and Break (since shortlisted for the Gua...

Carcanet New Poetries V: A Reunion

19 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Since their last appearance at the LRB Bookshop, the poets of New Poetries V have been busy: five debut collections (and one forthcoming), prestigious...

In the Wolf's Mouth: Adam Foulds with Andrew Motion

12 Mar 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Foulds’s latest novel, In The Wolf’s Mouth (Jonathan Cape), expands on the themes of violence, conflict and the distortions of history that h...

A Sense of Direction: Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Sheila Heti and Christian Lorentzen

28 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s memoir A Sense of Direction is an account of three pilgrimages – the Camino de Santiago, a tour of Buddhist temples on the is...

A Finger in the Fishes Mouth: The Legacy of Derek Jarman

19 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author Derek Jarman died on 19 February 1994. To mark the 20th anniversary of his death, ...

Whale Cultures: Philip Hoare and Jessica Sarah Rinland, with John Burton

12 Feb 2014

Contributed by Lukas

To mark the paperback publication of Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author Philip 'Leviathan' Hoare’s acclaimed new book The Sea Inside, we held an ev...

Jonathan Lethem: Dissident Gardens

29 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

'The past is a mosaic; we make it out of present materials.'Jonathan Lethem’s latest book Dissident Gardens (Cape) tells, in a ‘torrent of potent ...

Will Self on Guy Debord

23 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Will Self was at the shop to discuss the work of Guy Debord, and in particular The Society of the Spectacle, a 1967 work which offered an eerily accur...

Linda Colley: Acts of Union, Acts of Disunion

14 Jan 2014

Contributed by Lukas

In a year that might well see the beginning of the end of the United Kingdom, one of our foremost historians of national identity provides an analysis...

The New English Landscape: Ken Worpole in conversation with Rachel Lichtenstein

28 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In his second collaboration with landscape photographer Jason Orton, Ken Worpole – ‘for many years one of the shrewdest and sharpest observers of ...

American Smoke - Iain Sinclair and Gareth Evans

21 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

In American Smoke (Hamish Hamilton), the third part of a loose trilogy of topographical ruminations that began with Hackney: That Rose-red Empire and ...

Ian Nairn: Words in Place. With Gillian Darley, David McKie and Owen Hatherley

19 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Gillian Darley and David McKie’s study of Nairn - Ian Nairn: Words in Place – published by Five Leaves, reintroduces to a new generation an archit...

Jacek Dehnel in conversation with Antonia Lloyd-Jones

15 Nov 2013

Contributed by Lukas

Polish poet, novelist, painter and translator Jacek Dehnel appeared at the shop in conversation with his translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones.Antonia Lloyd-...